Gibb Schreffler is Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College (USA). His work engages both contemporary-ethnographic and historical-textual approaches to the study of culture, in subject areas including vernacular music and dance of South Asia’s Punjab region and the work-songs of 19th century American sailors. His forthcoming book, Dhol: Drummers, Identities, and Modern Punjab (University of Illinois Press), brings together two decades’ work following the lives of traditional Punjabi drummers across changing social landscapes.

Among the drummers (dholis) of Punjab, there is a tradition of committing oneself to a master, ustad, to ensure the standards. In recent years, Punjabi drummers have been pursuing new means of economic insurance, which contradict the authority of ustads. Gibb Schreffler will discuss how modern pressures challenge the formal relationship between ustad and student and asks whether the dholi community and its identity will survive?